Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this opportunity for the Dáil to debate the findings of the IHREC report on adequate housing. Amid this ever-growing crisis within housing, the report highlights several key findings and challenges in housing that many of us have long suspected.

I represent the constituency of Dublin Bay South, a constituency with a wealth of history and rich in community. At the core of so many of these communities are various council flat complexes in the inner city. From Ringsend right across to Kevin Street and down to Rathmines, these communities have contributed immensely to the very fabric that makes up Dublin city and they continue to do so. However, these communities have not been treated with the care and respect they deserve. The reality is these communities have been failed by a housing policy which neglects them year after year.

I have on several occasions highlighted in the Dáil numerous examples of the harsh living conditions that tenants renting from the local authorities must endure, issues such as widespread dampness and mould in flats going untreated for long periods of time and widespread rat infestation across several flat complexes in the inner city. So bad are these infestations that some residents are even afraid to open their windows because the rats are nesting under their balconies. There is a flat complex in York Street built only 12 years ago and at the time it was an award-winning design. Now, it is infested with rats and is flooding so frequently that Dublin City Council has had to move several families to a nearby hotel. The realities of neglect and housing inadequacy run rampant across the inner city. I can give numerous examples of this neglect.

We have heard strong words from the Government on its commitment to providing tenants with adequate social housing. We have heard the Government acknowledge that these complexes and communities are intrinsic to the city and have huge cultural and heritage significance. These living conditions are unacceptable, so the Government says. For residents in Pearse House, Glovers Court and Beech Hill Villas in Donnybrook, these words from Ministers mean nothing. These communities have had enough of talk and empty guarantees. They need urgent action in dealing with these harsh conditions. If Dublin City Council does not act, then the Minister and his Department must intervene. In the eyes of those living in many of the council flat complexes, they have been abandoned, forgotten and brushed aside by the Government. The cut of €23 million to State regeneration funding, despite unacceptable conditions of social housing in flat complexes, is to many yet another nail in the coffin of inner city communities.

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